Yet more bridge fallout

Published 1:00 am, Monday, January 4, 2010

Lisa Kelly and her husband, Eric, learned some things about New York bureaucracy while on assignment to blow up the Champlain Bridge.

Their two-person, Idaho-based blasting company, Advanced Explosives Demolition Inc., does detonations worldwide. Kelly had nothing but kind words for the Vermont officials she dealt with during their Christmas-season bridge job -- but the Kellys are scratching their heads about the Empire State's representatives.

As Kelly tells it, AED had begun laying dynamite when she got a Christmas call saying she needed to immediately come up with a certified check for $13,028 to pay for workers' compensation insurance.

She said her firm, which has little overhead, doesn't need the coverage since it's a husband-and-wife operation. But in New York, Kelly was told, she needed it. "I said I did not have the funds," she said. As the state pressed, the general contractor that hired AED picked up the cost. A policy was quickly put together by the New York State Insurance Fund with an effective date of Dec. 28, the day AED blew up the bridge.

Kelly said the state Department of Transportation's contractor, Harrison & Burrowes Bridge Constructors Inc., had solicited AED to make a bid, which ended up being the lowest of seven -- all from out-of-state firms. Pro-union forces objected, but Kelly said there are only about three companies in the world able to demolish such a large steel truss structure, and none in New York.

Kelly said the contract sum -- she says $128,000, DOT says $188,000 -- offered a modest profit considering travel, lodging and $94,000 in dynamite. But she said she thought it was worth it because the implosion was to be filmed for a reality show, "The Imploders," on The Learning Channel. The channel's ad promotes "an explosive six-part series following the Idaho-based Kelly family -- the world's greatest demolition experts -- as they struggle to manage family life on the road while running a dangerous demolition business."

"The governor of Vermont wanted it," Kelly said, "but somebody from New York said, 'You could not have the show.' It put us in a huge bind. For three weeks we were there, and it was supposed to be a five-day project. And then not being able to film."

"We had it in writing we could do (the filming), and it got squashed," she said.

"The Vermont side was happy, but from the other side there was hardly even a thank-you. Nothing. The governor from Vermont and the sheriff all sent over baskets of fruit and they said, 'We know what it's like to be on the road away from your family at Christmas.'"

Dennise Casey, spokeswoman for Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, said New York handled the business terms. "The contract is not with Vermont, so it's not for us to ask for things. What I can tell you is we certainly appreciated the professionalism of AED and Eric and Lisa Kelly."

DOT spokeswoman Deb Rausch said DOT "moved very quickly to make sure insurance was valid and current" when it discovered the lack of workers' compensation policy just before Christmas. As for killing a TLC shoot, DOT ruled the bridge too unstable to allow any cameras in close proximity. "There was nothing in the contract to film," Rausch said.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.